REYKJAVIK (AFP) — Icelandic pop singer Bjork was rapped by China's embassy in Reykjavik Thursday for apparently dedicating a song to the cause of Tibetan independence during a concert in Shanghai.
A video on Internet site Youtube shows Bjork performing in China's largest city last week and finishing the song "Declare Independence" with a chant of "Tibet, Tibet."
"What Ms Bjork has done in Shanghai has aroused strong resentment among the general public in China," the embassy said in a statement.
Bjork's support of the cause of Tibetan independence is not new -- she performed at a Free Tibet concert in San Francisco in 1996.
The song "Declare Independence", however, was originally written for Greenland and the Faroe Islands both of which belong to Denmark.
"China is a unified country with many ethnic groups, and Tibet has always been an inalienable part of China ever since ancient times," the embassy statement said.
"This is a common position of the international community, including the republic of Iceland, and not a single country in the world recognises Tibet as a 'independent country'."
"Any attempt to separate Tibet from China will definitely be opposed by Chinese people as well as those with a sense of justice in the world."
China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 and officially "liberated" it a year later.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, later fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising and established a government-in-exile in Dharamsala. He has been at odds with the atheist communist government in Beijing ever since.
He now calls for "greater autonomy" from China rather than fully-fledged independence.
China has complained after recent meetings between the Dalai Lama and President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Source Agence France-Presse
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